Delivery mechanism for vending-machines.



E. M. PERFECT. DELIVERY MECHANISM FOR VENDING MACHINES.

AP PLI CATWN FILED MAY $3. I916.

Patented Sept. 18, 1917.

I 63mm an? A. PER/"56 E. M. PERFECT.

DELIVERY MECHANISM FOR VENDING MACHINES.

Patented Sept. '18, 1917.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 13. $916- E. M. PERFECT. DELIVERY MECHANISM FORVENDING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 13'. 1916. 1,240,595. PatentedSept. 18, 1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEEY 3.

UNITED STATES rarnnr ()FEIGE.

EBER 'M. PERFECT, or

EvANsvILL'n, irfnIAn-Le, nssmneaor ens-ants To earner-s w. orEVANSVILLE, INDIANA.

DELIIViERY MECHANISM Fora vENDI-Ne-Mnomnns.

Specification of letters-Patent.

Patented se t; 18-, "1-917.

impl cation filea'ita 'ls, 1916. s riai'nme'vgsev. I I

To'all w'hom it may concern: I

Be it kno'wvn that I, EBIJR MQPERF OT, a citizen of the Unitec'lStat'es,and -resident of Evansville, Indiana", have invented certain new anduseful Improvements'in Delivery Mechanism for Vending-Machines, of whichthe following is'a specification eon tai'ning a full, clear, and exactdescription, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming apart hereof.

My inventionrelates to an improved 'delivery mechanism for vendingmachines of the class known as coin-co"ntr'olled, and my invention"consists in thenovel construction and arrangement of parts hereinafterdescribed and particular-1y designated in the claims found at the end ofthis specification.

The object of my 'invent'ion is to provide an improved coin-controlleddelivery mechanism which shall be adapted to sell and deliver articlesof various sizes and Weights, and of different materials, all of whichmay be contained Within the machine at the same time, ready for deliveryupon the deposit article has been delivered and the machine I is empty.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a vending-machine embodying myinvention. I

Fig. 2 is a side-elevation of the machine, with the side of the casingremoved, to show the internal mechanism.

Fig. 3 is a vertical section, taken from the rear of the machine, on theline 33 of Fig. 2.

Fig, 4 is a detail. side-elevation of por-' tioii of the uppe P 7 themechanism Fig. 5 is a horizontal section, taken through the machine, onthe line 5 5 of Fig. 2. I

Fig. 6 is a detail side elevation of the mechanism in the upper portionof the ma chine;

Fig. 7 is a similar View with the a different adpistment, and

Flg. 8 is a detail view of the coin-slot parts in bl' 'ock'ingplate, andthe Empty sign 'c'a'rriedj thereby. V

By reason of the fact that my vendingmachine is arranged with acomparatively large article storage chamber, in which article's ofdifferent sizes (large, small, and

ing 9', and access to Which is afforded by Way of a rear door 3. v

Said rear door 3 extends the full height of the casing, an'd'is providedwith common. hinges 4 and lock 5. I I

In the upper front corner of said casing is an articleexhibiting-chamber 6, in which a sample article, such as 7, is supportedupon a floor 7 Formed in the front of said casing 2 is a sight-openingS, in rear of which is -aglassplate 9 supportedin suitableholdingdevices 10, so that a clear view of the sample articlev containedin said exhibiting-chamber mayv be had by a person in front of themachine.

A vertical partition 11 separates the said article storage-chamber fromsaid exhibit ing-chainber 6, and said partition extends below the E001"7" of said exhibiting-chamber a considerable distance, so as to form he:neath the latter a mechanism-chamber 12, in which the operative parts ofthemachine are removably contained during use of the machine. v

13 indicates the front of the casing, Which is bodily detachable,together with a vertical plate 14;, carrying the important parts of theoperating-mechanism.

Said vertical plate 14 ill be hereinafter called the frame plate, and itextends downwardly fror'nthe floor 7* of said exhibition chamber to apoint near the base of the casing, Where it is cut off at an angle, asshown in Fig. 2;

A suitable money=till 15 is detachably carried upon a supporting-bracket16 projecting at a right-angle from the internal surface of said front13, at the lower end of said frameplate 14, and is removable therewith.

' A curved brace-sheet 17 has its outer and upper end secured to thesaid front wall by means of rivets or screws 18, whence 1t extendsdownwardly and rearwardly to the inner edge of said till-bracket 16, towhich it is secured, for the double purpose of bracing said bracket, andto form a bad-coin chute.

Said till 15 is yieldingly held in place upon its supporting-bracket 16by a fiat spring 19, so that said till may be quickly detached and.dumped upon the removal of said front, the upper side of said till beingopen, of course. v

The articles to be sold are designated, in the present instance, by thenumeral 7, and are all shown of the same size; but it is obvious thatthey need not be so, on account of the novel arrangement of the articlestand now to be described.

The articles 7 are temporarily supported in the article storage-chamber1, each upon a dumping-plate 20, oneabove the other, and surmounted by aweighted follower 21, which latter is preferably made of sheetmetal andrectangular in form, and supplied upon its interior with any suitableform of weight, such as sand, a piece of iron, or buck-shot.

Said follower 21 and said dumping-plates 20 are of course located in ahorizontal position when in use, as shown. (See Fig. 2).

Said dumping-plates 20, carrying the articles '7, as well as the saidfollower 21, are guided freely by suitable vertical guide-bars 22,secured to the inner walls of said article storage-chamber 1 by means ofnails or the like, 23.

24 designates fixed supporting-brackets, secured to the walls of saidarticle storagechamber 1, at a point beneath the lowermost one of theseries of dumpingplates carrying the articles 7. so that whenever saidlowermost plate is shoved horizontally until one of its ends passesbeyond the adjacent supporting-brackets 24, the said plate and thearticle immediately above (and lying upon it) will. be dumped, asindicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2, and said dumped article will dropdown onto the delivery chute 25, from whence it can be readily removedby the purchaser inserting his hand through the article-delivery opening26 at the base of the machine.

Said supporting-brackets 2% are located upon the opposite walls of thecasing, as shown more clearly in Fig. 3, but the do not project so faras to obstruct the fall of said clumping-plates or the dumped article.

After a plate carrying an article has been dumped. as just described,said dumped plate is caught at its rear edge, by itsoppositely-projecting integral ears 27 riding upon therearwardly-inclined tracks 28, and slides thereon rearwardly until itcomes to rest in a vertical position, ready to be used p ver a)gain inrefilling the machine. (See After one of said plates 20 has beendumpedwith its supported article, the stack of articles 7 and the plates 20interposed between them, gravitate toward said supporting-brackets 914,until the lowermost plate comes in contact with and is arrested in itsdownward movement by the said brackets, when the machine is ready todeliver again, and so on until all the superposed articles 7 and plates20 are disposed of in the manner described, when the machine should berefilled.

The numeral 29 designates perforated integral ears on the opposite edgesof said delivery-chute 25, by means of which said chute is secured tothe walls of the casing.

As soon as the uppermost (and last) one of the superposed dumping-platesof the arranged series has been dumped, as described, there is nothingto prevent the weighted follower 21 from passing to a plane below thatof the said supporting-brackets 21, and it does so until it rests uponand depresses the underlying horizontal arm 30 of the vertical slidingbar 31, which latter carries at its upper end the coin-slot blockingplate 32.

Said sliding bar 31 is thereupon moved downwardly a correspondingdistance, and said coin-slot blocking-plate is carried with it untilsaid plate rests behind, and covers, the coin-slot '33, and prevents theentrance of any coin through said slot, and also displays the word Emptyat the sight-opening 33 through the glass plate 34-, as long as themachine remains unfilled, and until the said follower 21 is elevated outof contact with the said horizontal-arm 30, by

spring 31 The said vertical bar 31 is provided with guide-slots 35 whichare engaged by screws or pins 36, fixed in the said frame-plate 14, onthe side thereof which is opposite that which carries most of themechanism. (See Fig. 4).

Said spring 31" normally holds said coinslot blocking and Empty signmechanism elevated such a distance that said coin-slot blockingmechanism and said Empty sign are elevated to plane above said coin-slotand said Empty sight opening, thereby permitting coins to be insertedthrough said coin-slot and allowing an observer to use the'm'achine inpurchasing as many articles as desired, as long as any articles remainin the article storage-chamber.

37 indicates a guide-flange on the upper rear corner of said'follower21, to engage the rear guide-bars, as shown in Fig. 4;, and

form a .stopito prevent the rear-ward movement, and dumping of said(follower when same 'is depressed below the aower ends of said rearguide-bars. I

When a proper coin, or check, 38, is inserted in the :said coin-slot 83it rolls edgewise down the inclined coin-chute '89 until it reaches-anddrops into the enit-slot .40 in the iower edge of said chute, when itfalls uponithe rear arm of 1a V shaped rocking .blocking' device 41 anddepresses said armto a downwardly-inclined position, and thence rollsinto the weight and size testing device, whichwill now be described indetail. Said coin blocking device 41 is pivoted at 42 upon a pivot-pin:or screw located at the lower edge of ascoin blocking chamber 43 whichis directly below the said coinehu-te 39,: the inner and lowerend ofsaid chamber opening directly into a combined coin-hopper and sizetesting deviice 44.-

said coin-chute and blooking chamber are provided with suitablepertor-ated flanges 4-4, by means of which they are riveted, or

' otherwise secured in position upon one face of the said frame-plate14. g

A stop-pin -45 limits the forward move ment of the said blocking device41.

Said coin 38, upon engaging said blocking-device 41, rocks the same fromits normal position, as shown'by solid lines in Fig. 6, to the positionin which it is shown by dotted lines, and then :said coin rolls intosaid 'coin hopper '44, as lieionendesoribed, and depresses same if saidcoin is sufficiently heavy, and if said coin isof :suflicient (or theproper) weight said coin will pass-off the inner :end of said hopper,and drop into the underlying chute 46, and land in the coin-spacebetween the inner end oi the pusher-bolt 47 and a laterally-projectinglug 48 on the horizontal sliding dumping-plate pusher-bolt 49, both ofsaid pusher-bolts be ing .mou-nted to slide in suitable horizontalguides secured to said frame-plate 14 by means :of rivets or screws.

Said pusher-bolt 47 is mounted on one side of said frame-plate 14, asshown in Fig. 6, and said other pusher-bolt 49 is mounted upon theopposite side of said plate.

Suitable coils.prings (preferably two of them arranged at an angle toeach other as shown in Fig. 4) 50 have their converging inner endsconnected to said dumping-plate pusher-bolt 49 by means of screws orpins '51., and their opposite ends attached to said frame-plate 14 at apoint-near the front edge of the latter, by means 0f suitable pins :52,whereby said pusher-bolt will be normally retracted, as shown.

But the said coin 38 will be shunted be fore it falls into saidcoinspace by a coin blocking-arm 53, whichiis caused to slide beneath andcatch said falling coin whenever the deliverydever is partiallydepressed by a careless person, beforea coin is placed and the shuntedcoins will fall upon said blocking arm in said chute 46, and be therebycaused to fall directly to the said delivery-chute 25, and be returnedto the owner.

The :action of the rejected coin, just described, takes place upon theside of the said frame-plate which 'is :shown in Fig. 2, so that saidrejected coin misses the till 15., which "is located upon the oppositeside of said frame-plate. If said delivery-lever 54 is fullydepressed,alter a coin has reached the said coin-space between the inner end of"said coin pusherbolt 47and said lateral lug 48 on the saiddumping-plate pusher-bolt 49, then said pushersbolt 47 will push saidcoin inwardly against :said lug, and carry coin andxlug (and of course)the dumping-plate pusherbolt inwardly, and said last named bolt willengage the lowermost one of said horizontally-placed dumpingplates20,and shove it if the adjacent supporting-brackets, when it will falland dump its :article into the delivery-chute 25, where said article canbe reached by the purchaser.

Said delivery-lever 54 ex-tends upon the exterior of the"vending-machinethrough a slot 55 formed .in' said front 13.

' Said delivery-lever is preferably, as shown, in the form of abell-crank lever, with its inner rarm passing downward upon the interiorof the mechanism-chamber 12, and thereat engaging a pin 56 projectingfrom one side of the said coin pusher-bolt 4 7, to

operate said bolt, as described above. A suitable coin pusher-boltspring 57 is fixed as shown to one side of said frameplate 14, andarranged to "engage said pin 56, to normally retain said bolt in aretracted position.

Said bell-crank delivery-lever 54 is pivoted at 58 to a suitable bracket59 fixed upon one side of said frame-plate 14.

A slot 60 is formed inthe side-wall of the guide 61 in which said coinpusher-bolt operates, for the necessary movementxof said pin 56.

62. indicates another bell-crank lever, which is forked at its lower endandpivoted at'63 to said frame-plate, so that its shorter (horizontal)arm will engage beneath the per end of said rocking-lever contacts witha depending-projection on the under side of said coin-hopper 44, andtilts said hopper on its pivot 66 and causes the latter to discharge anycoin that have been allowed to reach it inadvertently;

Said discharged coin will, as previously described, be intercepted bythe said blocking-arm 53, which at such moment underlies the saiddischarged coin and shunts it down into the said delivery-chute, aspreviously described.

Said rocking-lever is pivoted at 67 to the said frame-plate 14.

The numeral 68 designates an adjustable balancing-weight for the saidcoin hopper as, said weight being provided (in the present case) with ascrew 69 which is threaded into a perforation formed in the saiddepending projection 65 of the said hopper, so that by turning saidweight it will be moved nearer to or farther from the pivot 66 of saidhopper, and thereby balance the same until the proper space is normallypermitted (or arranged for) between the free delivery-end of the hopperand the adjacent partition 11, to allow a coin of the proper weight anddiameter to pass in said space into said chute 46, or to fall upon thesaid shunt or blocking arm 53 when the latter is interposed, aspreviously described.

After an article has been delivered, as previously described, by thefull depression of the said delivery-lever 54:, the coin which causedsaid delivery-action will be dropped into the till-chute 71 andgravitate to the said till 15, whence it will be removed by theattendant, as is usual in machines of this class.

As the inward movement of the said coin pusher-bolt continues thedelivery movement above-described, the lateral lug 48 extending to aplane above that of the center of said pushing coin, and being inclinedto fit the inclination of the periphery of said coin, causes said cointo run off the inner end of said bolt-guide 61, and be forced downwardlyinto the underlying till-chute 71.

I do not limit myself to the exact form and arrangement of the partsherein shown, as it is evident that the same may be changed by skilledmechanics, as they see fit, to operate by substantially the same meansin substantially the same way, with out departing from the scope of myinven tion.

Further description of the operation of my machine is deemedunnecessary, as that already recited will be ample for all who areskilled in the art.

Said front 13 is provided, of course, with a suitable lock 72, wherebyit may be removably secured in position, and the till be protected fromthieves.

' I do not herein claim the fraud preventive device, as I have made thatthe subject-matter of a divisional application, filed Decemher 4th,1916, Serial No. 135,014,. a

I claim the following as my invention:

1. An improved vending-machine, comprising: a casing; a series ofarticle-supporting plates mounted to be shoved endwise upon fixedbrackets; the fixed brackets upon which the lowermost one of said platesis mounted; ears on the opposite edge of 'each plate, at one endthereof; opposite inclined tracks which said ears slide upon after theyhave been shoved off of the fixed brackets; and a coin-operated boltwhich engages the said lowermost plate and shoves the same bodily off ofsaid fixed brackets toward and onto said inclined tracks.

2. An improved vending-machine, comprising: a casing; fixed brackets insaid casmg; a series of horizontal article-support ing plates superposedupon said fixed brackets, to support articles, and to be consecutivelyfirst moved bodily in a horizontal plane until one end is shoved off ofits fixed brackets; a pusher-bolt for pushing the lowermost one of saidplates off of its fixed brackets at one end; ears on said plates, ex-

tending beyond the edges ofthe plates in opposite directions, at the endof said plates which is opposite the end which is engaged by saidpusher-bolt; and opposite tracks which are downwardly-inclined, and ontowhich said ears are pushed Whenever said plates are shoved by saidpusher-bolt.

3. An improved vending-machine, comprising a suitable casing, a seriesof horizontal article supporting-plates supported in said casing toslide edgewise and to be dumped after having been slid edgewise,downwardly-inclined tracks onto which said plates are delivered afterhaving been slid edgewise and dumped with the articles carried by them,whereby the dumped plates are carried automatically out of the path ofthe next plate and articleto be dumped, a weighted-follower resting uponthe uppermost one of said supporting-plates before it has'been dumped,and a flange on the uppermost rear corner of said weighted-follower,forming a stop, to prevent the said follower from being slid edgewise,and means actuated by a coin, for bodily sliding said plates edgewiseand causing them to be delivered onto said inclined tracks after havingbeen dumped.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification,in'presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EBER M. PERFECT.

W'itnesses:

FRANCIS W. WINANS, JOHN J. NOLAN.

Copies 01' this patent may be obtained for five cents each, byaddressing the Commissioner of Patents.

Washington, D. 0.

